A/HRC/31/3
with activating the multinational joint task force mandated by the African Union Peace and
the Security Council to support regional efforts to combat Boko Haram.
90.
OHCHR also provided advice to United Nations missions and country teams,
including in Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia, on the
implementation of the human rights due diligence policy.
2.
Rapid response and early warning
91.
OHCHR continued to respond to emerging and ongoing crises and deployed teams
to assess the human rights situation in Cameroon, the Niger and Nigeria in the context of
Boko Haram operations; in the Republic of Moldova, in relation to political instability; in
Guatemala and Guinea in the context of elections; and at the border between the Dominican
Republic and Haiti to monitor the treatment of people of Haitian origin expelled from the
Dominican Republic. Owing to financial constraints, the OHCHR contingency fund and
rapid deployment roster used for such missions are overstretched. OHCHR monitored the
increasing violence and unrest across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East
Jerusalem, starting at the end of September 2015.
92.
OHCHR remained fully involved in the implementation of the Human Rights Up
Front initiative, including by providing support and advice both at headquarters and in the
field to United Nations partners. OHCHR coordinated the development of the mandatory
online course on United Nations human rights responsibilities for all United Nations staff,
which was launched on Human Rights Day 2015.
93.
Management of information on violations of human rights and broader threats to
populations remained critical to the effective implementation of the initiative and to
ensuring adequate and timely analysis and response. To that end, OHCHR led an interagency task force that put forward options for the establishment of a common United
Nations human rights information management system. The Office contributed to defining
new headquarters coordination and early warning mechanisms. OHCHR regularly provided
country specific human rights and early warning analysis to United Nations system entities
and a series of country notes were shared with resident coordinators to guide country-level
strategies.
94.
OHCHR mad greater use of other information sources. For example, it concluded a
memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research
Operational Satellite Applications Programme with the aim of expanding its use of satellite
imagery to verify human rights information.
95.
At the country level, the Human Rights Up Front initiative resulted in enhanced
mainstreaming of human rights into United Nations responses by bringing human rights
analysis into development assistance frameworks, enabling improved strategies and
operating procedures to address human rights risks, drawing attention to long-standing
human rights concerns and strengthening human rights advocacy. OHCHR worked with
partners, notably the Department of Political Affairs, on a concept for the rapid deployment
of multidisciplinary teams to countries where crises may emerge. The first of these teams
were deployed during the last quarter of 2015, in Burkina Faso and Lesotho.
96.
OHCHR pursued efforts to professionalize human rights monitoring and
investigation through the development and update of guidance tools, such as its glossary of
violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law and new
chapters of its manual on human rights monitoring. In 2015, OHCHR initiated a review of
its casualty recording methodology with a view to improving existing practices. It provided
guidance, training, advice and lessons learned exercises to commissions of inquiry, factfinding missions and ad hoc OHCHR deployments. Remote training was expanded and
tested when the security situation did not allow for on-site training for staff, namely in
15
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